International Commodities Trading Information Source

Welcome to NICC Organization Traders New International Commodities Club

NICC is a Traders Guide to Making Money Trading US-Based or International Commodities Markets

Traders Article of the Month from New International Commodities Club...

I can say as of today's date
it's been my experience there is a common perception among traders there exists a linear progression
among the 3 requirements to be successful in trading:

1. psychology

2. money management

3. sound trading plan

However, my own experience as a trader suggests the progression thru these areas are not linear but instead a circular spiral.

For traders who actively trade (or desire to trade actively and learn how to trade) the
financial and futures markets, there are a lot of other things outside the
markets you should be following. But, I guess my bigger message is for those
of you that aren’t in the futures markets, whether you trade them or
not, the futures markets have a significant impact on what happens in the
other financial markets, including forex, currencies, options and stocks.
That’s why you should soak up every piece of good trading knowledge
like a sponge in a quest to clearly see the bigger picture.

Our trading careers will be circular,
because we will continuously move around
the circle seeking to improve these
three elements, incorporating new ideas
and improving with the experience only
'hands on' commodity trading can bring.
In the words of T. S. Elliott, "We
shall not cease from our exploration
and the end of all our exploring will
be to arrive at where we started and
know the place for the first time."

As novice traders, we need to begin
by formulating a trading plan. Once
a commodity trading plan has been developed
to the best of our ability, then we
move on to money management and lastly
to the psychology of trading ... will
come back to money-management and psychology,
but meanwhile let's look more closely
at the trading plan.

The role of the commodity trading plan
is to provide a structure to work within
an environment perceived as unstructured.
This perception can give rise to the
"fear of the unknown." The trading plan
allows us to deal with this unknown.
Also, once we have begun trading our
plan, we need to have continued confidence
in our ability to deal with the commodity
market. Here we are dealing with the
efficacy of the plan to produce profits
and our state of mind as the plan interacts
with the market.

Our commodity futures
trading plan will need to have an edge.
In my (trading) experience, the commodity
plans that deliver an edge have the
following common elements:

1. Trend
Identification of moves of similar magnitudes.
This includes tools to identify probable
changes in trend. Once the trend is
identified, we can determine the appropriate
trading strategy (U.S. or international
markets).

2. Low
risk entry. This includes: identifying
appropriate support and resistance areas;
setups or warnings that alert the trader
to a low risk opportunity; entry and
initial stop placement techniques.

3. Trade
Management. Once in the trade, we need
to be able to manage the trade. Trade
management includes trailing stop-loss
orders and where to take profits.

4. Finally,
the trading plan needs some tool to
tell us when not to trade. For example,
when there is an increase in volatility
to the point that the our previous experience
is of no assistance.

We can teach you how to trade the markets using Gann's best trading methods, including the powerful Geometric Angles Mr. Gann used so extensively, squaring of price & time, using valid gann style "square charts" and gann charting methods, support & resistance numbers and levels, "Gann numbers" and numerology. Our W. D. Gann Trading Course can teach you Gann's amazing methods for successful trading of commodity futures and stocks.

If you closely read and study our unique Gann Course it's quite likely you will learn how to use and implement important Gann trading methods in your trading within 72-hours. This Gann traders course was written by Dave of Webtrading who has studied and used Gann's methods for the past 30-plus years, including studying squaring-price-and-time. He is considered an expert on Gann and Gann's methodology.

Trading the financial markets using Gann methodology can work well when trading forex and other futures markets, including the stock market. W D Gann was much more involved in inter-day (position trading) vs intra-day (day trading) and mostly used daily bar-charts. With that said, Mr. Gann's trading techniques can be effectively used to day-trade too with the methods also being applicable to intra-day charts such as hourly charts. Daytrading was not as popular during Gann's time like it is now.

Here are some (but not all) of the key subjects covered in our highly recommended Gann Techniques Trading Course, which can effectively be used to trade stocks or futures markets using our course based on Gann's unique trading methods.

In this Gann Course we address issues such as: Did W. D. Gann use Astrology in his Trading (the answer may surprise you); Square Chart Definition and Usage; Squaring Price and Time; Geometric Angles; Which Gann Angle is most important (answer about why it's so powerful is easy to comprehend); Angle Concepts; Gaps on Charts; What Causes Chart Gaps; The Gann Square of Nine and other powerful Gann methods, plus more about Squaring of Price and Time.

Why spend $1,000 or more elsewhere to learn Gann's trading techniques when you can learn W. D. Gann Techniques in this course at very low-cost; teaching William D. Gann's unique methodology, for a fraction of the price? The cost is only $97 with free shipping. This potentially highly profitable Gann Secrets (explained) trading course offers all Gann traders (both new and experienced) the secrets and knowledge needed to blend these powerful Gann trading techniques into commodities, futures & stock market trading decisions, which can bring you profits. Order by Clicking-on Buy Now...

The next point in the circle is the development
of a set of sound money management rules.
I believe money management comes
after the trading plan, because the
money management rules will depend to
a large degree upon the real-time trading
results of the trading system. Also, you
will not truly appreciate the importance
of money management until you have experienced
for ourselves the erratic or disappointing
results that come from applying a promising
trading plan without a set of money
management rules.

The questions trade money management rules need to address are:

1. How much trading capital is needed
to finance one contract in a particular
market? For example, a trader may decide
he needs $40,000 (margin) to trade one
Treasury Bond contract and $30,000 to
trade one Japanese Yen contract (or
international commodity markets).

2. What percentage of capital is risked on each trade? i.e. 2% or 5%, etc?

3. Are opportunities across competing
instruments treated as equal?

4. Are trading opportunities within
the some instrument treated as equal?

5. Are successive opportunities in
the same instrument treated as equal?

Once a commodity trading plan and
a set of good money management rules
have been developed, we need to take
the plan into the commodity market.
It is at this point that we will not
only discover more about our plan, but
more importantly we will discover more
about our own psychology. For instance,
we may discover we are unable to execute
the plan in the market, or we are unable
to execute it flawlessly.

Before we can progress, we must remedy
any problems which have arisen so far. To overcome these problems, we may need
to adjust our trading plan and/or look
closely at our own psychological makeup.
For instance, the commodity trading
plan may need to be made simpler or
more robust so that we find it easier
to execute the trade. Another trading situation could
be finding our psychology is such
that we are more suited to one type of
commodity trading other than the commodity
trading style of our trading plan, for example
long-term commodity trading vs day trading.

Once we are able to execute the trading plan without error, then we can go to the
next step - that is, are we ready to
accept the rewards from the perfect
execution of our plan? We may suddenly
find ourselves unable to accept a steady
stream of money from the market. This
problem normally manifests itself with
having a series of wins only to give
back profits in one or two unplanned
trades finishing from where we started.
Again, we will have to go back and look
at our own psychology and try to remove
any blocks that are stopping us from
reaping the rewards of our efforts.

At the completion of this task, we
will be back at the beginning of the
loop - the trading plan. After completing
the loop traders will not only have new ideas
to test and incorporate, but also be
able to adjust the plan to better suit
our psychological development as a commodities
futures trader.

Once again quoting T. S. Elliot, "through
the unknown, remembered gate when the
last of earth left to discover is that
which is the beginning."